Leah Horowitz

…when the State trembled a sturdy structure of civil society was at once revealed.

– Antonio Gramsci

As a critical cultural geographer, my research examines grassroots engagements with environmental issues.

By using ethnographic methods to explore the cultural complexities and power dynamics of tensions surrounding the management and exploitation of natural resources, my research contributes to our understanding of the importance of relationships and networks – and the crucial role emotions play within these – in enabling and shaping various modes of environmental governance.

I have examined micro-political alliances and conflicts around biodiversity conservation, both rural (national parks in Borneo, community-initiated projects in New Caledonia) and urban (New Jersey wetlands). Currently, I am focusing on Kanak responses to multinational mining and refinery projects in New Caledonia.

I am embarking on a new research project examining American Indian communities’ responses to unconventional fossil fuel development (pipelines carrying tar sands and crude oil, and frack sand mining) in the Midwest.

I welcome graduate students who are interested in these or similar issues.

Horowitz, L.S. In press. Rhizomic resistance meets arborescent assemblage: UNESCO World Heritage and the disempowerment of indigenous activism in New Caledonia. Annals of the Association of American Geographers.

Horowitz, L.S. 2015. Culturally articulated neoliberalisation: Corporate Social Responsibility and the capture of indigenous legitimacy in New Caledonia. Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers 40(1): 88-101.